Tag Archives: hear-this

You may have noticed that we got rid of the stars on our album reviews. If you’re an engaged music fan in 2023, your opinion isn’t going to be defined by some random number. Now, we tell you right away (with some new labels) when a new album is recommended …

For almost a decade, Kesha’s career and life have been in a state of purgatory as she’s been locked in a legal battle that has at times left her with a precarious future. On the two albums she released in the midst of endless court hearings, she put up an …

The Latin pop charts have always given us a somewhat skewed portrait of Juanes. Hits like the compulsively hummable 2004 song “La Camisa Negra” established the Colombian singer/songwriter as a multi-platinum-selling global icon. In doing so, many listeners and radio programmers focused on the bubbly, slick, frivolous aspect of his …

Paul Simon follows his muse wherever it leads him, whether that meant leaving Simon & Garfunkel at their commercial peak, or opening his debut solo album with “Mother and Child Reunion,” a reggae track recorded in Kingston a full year before the Wailers released Catch a Fire, or helping South …

Jessie Ware’s 2020 release What’s Your Pleasure was one of the early pandemic’s great revelations — a pop album that successfully brought the movement, yearning, and euphoria of the dance club into everyone’s homes. It was a perfect setting for the British singer and songwriter’s voice, luxurious and sophisticated but …

Who would have guessed? Everything But The Girl have returned in one of the year’s most surprising—and welcome—comebacks. The married London duo of Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt quit making music together in 2000, taking time to raise their family while working separately. Fuse is their first collaboration since 1999’s …

Heavy music’s post-lockdown resurgence launched groups like Turnstile and Knocked Loose from VFW halls and church basements into major festivals and arenas. Jesus Piece is next up to make that leap with their new LP, …So Unknown. The group has been busy in the years since the release of their …

Rae Sremmurd are party starters first and foremost. Their 2015 debut, SremmLife, burned bright with blockbuster singles like “No Flex Zone,” “This Could Be Us,” and “No Type,” still club staples to this day thanks to the Tupelo, Mississippi, brothers’ exuberant charisma and Mike WiLL Made-It’s slick production. They were …

Yellow and black are the colors of caution signs, fallout shelters, and “Baby on Board” placards — warnings of imminent menace and catastrophe if you don’t get your shit together. So it’s fitting that Metallica would adopt the color scheme for the cover of 72 Seasons, their meditation of sorts …

It’s been a rough few years for young men. The role models offered up in today’s crop of alpha male podcasters and crypto grifters provide little in the face of the world’s dizzying buffet of hostilities. So it’s comforting to see Detroit hip-hop maximalist Danny Brown’s virtuosic brand of weirdo …